Various types of production line systems and arrangements utilize transport plates on which workpieces, or structures requiring assembling or working thereon, are secured to transport plates. The transport plates are guided along the production line and moved, for example, by a continuously moving belt. At respective work stations, the carrier plates are stopped so that operations can be carried out on the workpieces, for example by associating other parts therewith, assembly, or the like. Typically, the feed of the plates is obtained by frictional engagement with the moving transport belts or webs. The plates can lie loosely on the transport belts. A typical arrangement of this type, including an arrangement to stop continued movement of the carrier plates at the respective work stations, is shown in the referenced U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,830, Hofmann, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Work being carried out at the respective work stations may require different operating times at different stations. To permit operations to be carried out which are independent of a certain cadence or clock rate, and to store carrier plates, it is frequently desirable to have a longitudinal transport path and, in addition thereto, branching transport paths along which carrier plates can be branched. The branching path may terminate in a second transport line or transport path, parallel to the first one from which the branching path extends. Typically, the branching path is a cross connection between two elongated transport paths, extending at approximately right angles to the elongated transport path. The branching path thus can form a bypass. Additional bypasses can be constructed so that the overall transport system may, for example, in top view, be essentially rectangular. The carrier plates, moving along the first longitudinal path, are stopped by a stopper. They can be accepted by the cross connection branching path in the same relative position in which they were stopped. At the end of the cross connection path, a further stop is provided and, upon acceptance of the carrier plate by a second longitudinally moving belt, the transport plate is again moved in the same preceding relative position along the second transport path. The second transport path, if it extends parallel to the first, will then move the carrier plate, and with it the workpiece, in 180.degree. relative rotation with respect to the outside of the second transport path so that, if the diversion across the branch was done to permit additional personnel to operate along the second transport line, they face the workpiece backwardly, so that the entire carrier plate as well as the workpiece must be rotated by 180.degree. for work thereon. Thus, if it is desired to work additionally on the workpieces along the second or bypass production line, it is frequently necessary to rotate the transport plate, and with it the workpieces, by 180.degree. about a vertical axis--with respect to the transport path.